Railway mail catching and delivering means.



J. G. JOHNSON.

RAILWAY MAIL GATGHING AND DELIVERING MEANS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 30, 1914.-

Patented Dec. 29,

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JACOB G-ARNETT JOHNSGN, OF IVANI-IOE, VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR 6F FOUR-TENTHS TO ALBERT K. GROSECLOSE, OF IVANHOE, VIRGINIJ L, AND THBEE-TENTHS T0 MARCO B.

HILLENBERG, 0F CROCKETT, VIRGINIA.

RAILVJ'AY MAIL CATCHING AND DELIVERING MEANS.

Application filed March 30, 1914.

To all who mat may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB GARNETT JOHN- SON, residing at Ivanhoe, in the county of lVythe and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway Mail Catching and Delivering Means, of which the following is a specification.

My invention, which has reference to mail bag transferring mechanism in which the operation of delivering the mail pouches into the car and discharging the pouches from the car, is practically simultaneously effected, has for its object to provide a mechanism of the general character stated of a simple and economical construction which effectively serves its intended purposes.

With the above and other objects in view my invention consists in the peculiar construction and novel arrangement of the parts hereinafter explained, specifically pointed out in the appended claim and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved mail bag transferring mechanism, the parts being shown at their operative position. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the stationary bag holding member. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the bag holding and catching devices located within the car doorway, the same being shown at their inner or turned back position in dotted lines. Fig. 4: is a detail side elevation of the vertically adjustable catcher arm standard or holder mounted on the car door, the catcher arms being shown swung to their vertical or inoperative position. Fig. 5 is a detail view of the turning lever and its cooperating spring device, hereinafter referred to. Fig. 6 is a detail view hereinafter specifically referred to. Fig. 7 is a detail view of the hub with the sockets 1717.

In the practical arrangement of my pres ent invention, the same comprises a hollow standard 1, located at one side of the track, and in which is supported a post or shank 2, the latter being adjustably held in the said standard 1, by a set screw 13 to thereby provide for raising and lowering the mail bag holding and catching devices mounted thereon to a proper horizontal position for cooperating with the mail bag delivering and Specification of Letters Yatent.

Patented Dec. as, rare.

Serial No. 828,273.

catching means carried by and adapted for being projected beyond the side of the car. A counterpoise 23 is attached to the inner end of the arm 21, which tends to normally swing the said catching and delivering devices to an upright position. To hold the said devices to their down or operative position, 1 provide a cable 5 that connects with the post 2, and which has a rod 6 having an eye attached to it, the purpose of which is to hook over an upper stud pin a that projects laterally from the head 25.

When the parts are held down, as shown in Fig. 2, the rod 6 is held to a vertical position by engaging a lower stud pin 6 and over the passageway between the upper and lower arms 22-22 such positioning of the rod 6 being provided for automatically tripping the said catching and delivering devices, which operation is effected in the manner presently explained. Each of the upper arms has a pair of lateral extensions 61 that form the hangers upon which the mail bags (to be caught by the bag catching means on the car) are suspended. Each extension 61 includes a fiat spring whose outer end is turned up to facilitate the placing of the bag loop therein, as shown.

7 designates a catcher finger or extension, one of which is projected laterally from each of the lower arms 22 and the said extensions 7 are disposed midway of the two upper extensions 61-61, it being understood that the said member 7 catch the bag that is carried forward by the bag holding devices on the car, see Fig. l.

The mail bag catching and delivering mechanism mounted upon the car in my present construction, comprises a body or hub member 8 slidably held upon a standard 9, located in the car doorway and the said member is held to its vertical adjustments upon the standard by a bottom or disk mem ber 10 that is adjustably held by set screw 4, and an upper collar 12 provided with a set screw 12 1% designates a shaft that extends from the hub 8 in a plane at right angles to the standard, and the said shaft is rockably mounted in the hub, so that it may be readily turned to bring the catching and delivering devices mounted on the outer end theredevices locked to either the operative po-' of, either to the horizontal or operative position shownin Fig. 1, or to the vertical or inoperative position shown in Fig. 1.

The inner end of the shaft carries a crank handle having the usual spring latch that includes a stud 16, adapted for interlocking with either of a pair of sockets 17 17, in the hub member, it being understood that when the shaft is at the position shown in Figs. land 3, the stud engageswith one of the said "sockets and holds the parts locked to such position, and likewise when the shaft is turned to bring the parts to the position shown in Fig. 1, the said stud 16 engages the other socket and holds the parts locked 1 to the latter position.

The catching and delivering devices carried upon the car comprise a pair of fingers or extensions 1818, each of which has a over the inner end of the arms 18, and it is so'positioned with respect to the notched inner end of the said arms that as the said arms 18 (which arms, it should be stated, are closer together than the extensions 61 that holdthe bag to be caught) pass through the loop or handle of the stationarily held bag they catch the said bag loop or handle which passes under the catcher spring 31.

For holding the hub 8 with its attached vsition shown in Figs. 1 and 2, or to the position shown in Fig. 4, a lever 32 is pivotally mounted in a vertical recess 33 in the hub 8 which when the parts are as in Figs.

* 1 and 3, is swung down for engaging a notch 34 in the disk which also has a second notch 35 with which the said lever is brought into engagement for locking the parts when the hub 8 is turned and the shaft is rocked to bring the catching and delivering elements to the position shown in Fig. 4:.

By reason of constructing'and arranging the pa-rts as shown and described, the mail pouch transferring devices located on the trackway, can be readily adjusted to the desired vertical position, for a proper cooperation with the like devices carried by the car,

:stationarily held transferring devices.

which being also vertically adjusted can be set to work in harmony with the other or It should-be stated, however, that in addition toproviding for the vertical adjustments of the two sets of devices, the arms 2222 of the stationary catching and delivering mechanism are 'spaced apart sufficiently to allow forthe usual vertical vibration of the car heldcatching and delivering meanscaused by the'undulations of the road bed and the usual spring vertical motion of the car,

without danger of effecting a proper cooper ation of the two sets of devices or of damaging them.

When the parts that constitute my mail catchingmechanism are positioned asshown in Fig. 1"of the drawings, which indicate a mail bag hung in position for being transcatcher fingers 1 818 pass between the members 22 22 on the arm 21 and through the loop orhandle 30 ofthe mail bag hung from the said arm 21. As the catcher devices on the car travel forward as stated, the shaft 14 of the said device-engages the mail bag loop 30 before mentioned andthe latter is pushed off the'extension 61-61 onto the arms 1818 and caught up by the spring catcher 31-31 mounted thereon. During the aforesaid operation the loop .30 of the mailbag to bedelivered from the car passes over the catcher finger 7 on the arm 21 and is caught up by the said finger 7. As the shaft passes through the members 22--22 of the arm 21 it engages the detent 6 and releases the detent 6 and thereby frees the said arm 21 which, after the rear-most arms 1818 of the moving catcher devices pass from between the members 22,22*, then swings up to the vertical position. v

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, the complete construction, the operation and the advantages ofmypresent invention will be readily understood by those skilled in the art to which the said invention relates; it

being apparent that by reason of the duplex arrangement of the parts the same operation of catching and delivering the mail pouches occurs when the car. travels in either direction One of the advantages ofmy present invention is that since the devices alongside of the track are rockably mounted and tiltable to the vertical out of the way position by the counterpoise 21, by placing the eye bolt that holds the said devicesidown in the path of movement of the outer end of the arm that projects from the car, see Fig. 6,

as soon as the pouch transferring operation is completed the said arm'engages the-rod ,moves it off the stud 7 and thereby releases the tiltable devices which then automatically return to the upright position.

What I claim is: r

In a mail bag transferring means of the r 7 character described: a standard mounted in the car door Way, a supporting body rotaand a latch device carried by the crank hantably mounted on the standard, means dle for looking with the body to hold the 10 for locking thei1 said bod z i in different shaft at different rotated positions.

positions on t e standar a catcher,

said catcher including a shaft rotatably JACOB GARNETT JOHNSON mounted on the said body, bag catching ele- WVitnesses:

ments on the outer end of the said shaft, a D. A. MOORE,

crank handle on the inner end of the shaft H. B. RIGGLE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner oi Patents, Wzuhington, I). C. 

